Iíve been having ongoing issues with Etihad from the beginning of the month regarding a flight compensation claim. My attempts to contact Etihad customer services have been largely ignored and it has proven that customer service means nothing to Etihad.
On the 8th of January our flight was delayed from Ho Chi Minh City to Abu Dhabi. This caused us to miss our Abu Dhabi to Johannesburg flight and this caused us to miss our Johannesburg to Durban flight which was booked through another airline. Upon landing in Abu Dhabi we approached the travel desk where the agent at the transfer desk distinctly told us that she cannot book us a connecting flight from Johannesburg to Durban on her system as itís not an Ethiad flight, but itís not a problem because you can book a new flight and claim for this flight via [email protected]. To this day I havenít received a response from them.
After a massive struggle we managed to get a response via Etihadís social media division. The claims division stated that, because we didnít book our Johannesburg Ė Durban ticket through them we canít be compensated. I find it ludicrous that weíre informed of this ďnew ruleĒ once we were told otherwise and given the go ahead to rebook the flight. Furthermore, we booked our JHB Ė Durban flight through SAA, which is an Etihad partner, so I donít see what the problem is.
Secondly, we had a horrible experience of having to spend 29 hours in the airport with nothing but glorified sleep pods to rest in due to the airport hotel being renovated. Friends of ours flew via Emirates, experienced an 8 hour delay and were instantly given day visas and put up in a hotel outside the airport. We had a 29 hour delay and were told we would have to pay an exorbitant amount for a day visa that would take a minimum of 8 hours to be processed. This was clearly a lie and proves once again that customer service means nothing to Etihad.

To add even more insult to injury, Etihad offered us a pittance of a 10000 miles compensation. Other airlines offer free flights and cash reimbursements for issues that are far less inconvenient than what we experienced. Iím absolutely disgusted. RQID:417296

Due to technical issues at their side, the flight was delayed.
I followed much with them on [email protected] but at last they are giving just 10k miles. GulfAir is giving around 400 USD as a compensation and also hotel for flight cancellation.

I traveled from Mumbai to JFK New York on Jan 8th 2018 on Etihad Airways. I had purchased a bottle of Glenfiddich in the flight on my Mumbai-Abu Dhabi sector flight. There appears to be a rule that passengers transiting to USA are not allowed to purchase or carry any alcoholic beverages. I was not aware of this rule. However, at the time of purchase, I had clearly indicated to the steward that I was flying to New York and had provided all the documentation. However, he did not raise any objection to my purchase and even provided me the bottle in a sealed bag to avoid issues in my next leg.

However, this was not acceptable to the immigration officer at the Abu Dhabi clearance. When I discussed this with the Etihad personnel at the airport, they were surprised that the Etihad steward had sold me the goods knowing my continuation to New York. The lady discussed it with her manager and took a copy of my boarding passes and the receipt as proof and asked me to email [email protected] as well to request for a refund of the charges for the bottle which was discarded by the immigration officer.

I sent an email to the said address on Jan 11th and have since not received even an acknowledgement of the email. I had provided copies of my boarding passes and the credit card receipt for claiming the refund as instructed by the Etihad lady.

I also tried using the feedback form on Etihad.com multiple times only to get an error "Our systems are down, please check back later" - and this has happened over the past two weeks consistently.

So now after getting frustrated, I am reporting this incident in the forum, Hoping to get some resolution from Etihad - Would not expect such poor client relations and customer service from an airline competing with the likes of Emirates to be the leader of the pack.